BA computer crash: passengers face third day of disruption at Heathrow

The chief executive of British Airways, Alex Cruz, has said 75,000 people were affected by flight delays and cancellations after a significant IT failure over the bank holiday weekend.

BA passengers are facing a third day of disruption at Heathrow as the airline continues to deal with the fallout from the IT system glitch, which Cruz said had been caused by a power surge at 9.30am on Saturday.

Short-haul flights from the airport were subject to cancellations and delays leadingto scenes of chaos at Heathrow and Gatwick over the weekend. Both Heathrow and Gatwick warned bank holiday travellers to check with the airline before setting off on Monday.

BA said it would run a full schedule at Gatwick on Monday and it intended to operate a full long-haul schedule and a high proportion of its short-haul programme at Heathrow.

Cancellations on Monday morning included flights to Stockholm, Vienna and Dublin, as well as several domestic routes. Delays were typically less than half an hour.

The airline is also dealing with a backlog of lost luggage after many passengers had to leave the airport without their bags. “We are working to reunite all our customers with their bags,” a spokeswoman said.

Rose Drury, a childcare assistant from Leeds, told the Guardian she had been attempting to contact the airline about reclaiming her luggage since Saturday. Drury and her sister had been scheduled to travel from Heathrow to New York but the flight was cancelled after they had checked in their luggage.

Leaving Heathrow was “honestly like a moshpit,” she said. “Hundreds of us were waiting to exit the airport.” A BA staff member stood on a bench to announce to the crowds that they should leave without their bags, and would receive them later.

Drury said her luggage had important medication that she has now missed for two days so she will have to go to the doctor for more when the surgery reopens after the bank holiday. She had been unable to get in touch with BA, she said. “Since arriving back in Leeds we’ve tried to ring continually but just never got through. We can’t get through online either,” she said.

The airline said it was continuing to make good progress in recovering from the worldwide IT glitch that grounded scores of planes, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

An airline spokeswoman said: “We operated a full schedule at Gatwick on Sunday. At Heathrow, we operated virtually all our scheduled long-haul flights, though the knock-on effects of Saturday’s disruption resulted in a reduced short-haul programme.

“As our IT systems move closer to full operational capacity, we will again run a full schedule at Gatwick on Monday and intend to operate a full long-haul schedule and a high proportion of our short-haul programme at Heathrow.

“We apologise again to customers for the frustration and inconvenience they are experiencing and thank them for their continued patience.”

The airline rejected a suggestion by the GMB union that the outsourcing of IT functions to India to cut costs had contributed to the chaos. “We would never compromise the integrity and security of our IT systems,” the spokeswoman said. “IT services are now provided globally by a range of suppliers and this is very common practice across all industries and the UK government.”

She said the problems were caused by a power outage and the airline was investigating the incident. “The root cause was a power supply issue that affected a number of our systems,” she said. The airline has said there is no evidence of a cyber-attack.

Travellers spent the night sleeping on yoga mats spread on terminal floors on Saturday after BA cancelled all flights leaving the London hubs, and disruption continued into Sunday with dozens more services from Heathrow cancelled.

The IT outage had a knock-on effect on BA services around the world, while passengers who did get moving on the limited number of flights to take off from the UK reported arriving at their destinations without their luggage.

The disruption also hit transport systems on the ground, with hundreds of travellers flooding King’s Cross station in London in the hope of boarding a train north instead.

Experts predict the effects could continue for several days, while BA is facing huge compensation costs, with reports suggesting the bill could top £100m.

In a tweet, Heathrow said it had “mobilised additional Heathrow colleagues to assist passengers at the terminals and give out free water and snacks”.

Issuing an apology on Sunday, Cruz admitted it had been “a horrible time for our customers”.

Early on Monday, a Heathrow spokeswoman said: “Following a worldwide IT system issue, there continues to be some disruption to British Airways flights from Heathrow. All British Airways passengers due to fly should check the status of their flight before travelling to the airport, via Heathrow.com, ba.com and British Airways’ Twitter account.

“All passengers whose flights have been cancelled should not travel to the airport unless they have already rebooked on to another flight. Passengers looking to re-book flights should go to ba.com.”

Meanwhile, Gatwick airport tweeted: “Today, Monday 29th May, British Airways are planning to operate a near normal schedule at Gatwick, following the British Airways IT system failure.

“We continue to advise customers travelling with British Airways over the Bank holiday weekend to check the status of their flight with British Airways before travelling to the airport. Customers should not travel to the airport unless they have already rebooked onto another flight.”

The Civil Aviation Authority issued a statement on Sunday highlighting the protections for passengers under by EU law. Matt Buffey, its head of consumer protection, said: “The welfare of passengers must be the priority for any airline experiencing disruption and we fully expect all UK airlines to meet their obligations.

“Passengers caught up in this disruption should be informed of their legal rights by British Airways, but they can find out the full details of their rights during delays and cancellations by visiting the CAA website.”